Great Lakes Law

Environmental groups and EPA step up the fight against tar sands oil refinery pollution in the Great Lakes

Tar sands oil gives coal some competition for the title of dirtiest fuel. From mining to refining to burning, tar sands oil is an environmental disaster. The Great Lakes is becoming a center for refining imported tar sands oil, which comes from western Canada. As a result, refinery pollution is threatening our water and our communities. BP’s Whiting Refinery on the shores of Lake Michigan in Indiana has become a focal point in the legal... Read more →

Federal funding for Great Lakes restoration won’t stop new pollution problems

The Great Lakes restoration campaign - led by conservation groups, industry, and state and local governments to get more federal funding for research, habitat restoration, and toxic clean-ups - is taking some deserved criticism for simply throwing a lot of money at existing problems without providing new solutions. As Dan Egan reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article “Great Lakes aid isn't a cure-all; Despite $475 million restoration plan, damage continues in freshwater system”, some... Read more →

Michigan issues new state rules to limit mercury emissions from power plants

Michigan has just announced new statewide rules to significantly limit mercury emissions from power plants. While the rules aren’t ideal, they are a significant victory on a critically important environmental and public health issue. Mike Shriberg, Policy Director of the Ecology Center, has worked on this issue for many years, going back to his former work with Environment Michigan. Mike was kind enough to offer this guest post on the new mercury emission rules. In... Read more →

Guest Post: Recognizing Federally Reserved Groundwater Rights

Federally reserved water rights are a major issue in the West, and beginning to emerge in disputes and policy issues in the Great Lakes region. While federally reserved water rights are well established for surface waters, courts and states are split on their applicability to groundwater. Carlin Danz, a former water law student and research assistant at the University of Michigan Law School, has prepared an excellent analysis of the debate over recognizing federally reserved... Read more →

Michigan to combine environmental quality and natural resource agencies

Governor Granholm has issued an executive order to combine the Department of Environmental Quality and Department of Natural Resources into one new agency, to be called the Department of Natural Resources and Environment. The plan is to take effect January 17, 2010. The merger is motivated primarily to save money as the state agencies face a huge budget crises. Environmental regulation and natural resource management obviously go together, and were under the same state agency... Read more →

Can the state of Michigan protect our water and air with a bake sale budget?

While Michigan’s budget situation is still not resolved, the legislature has cut general fund support to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality by 39%. The Department of Environmental Quality is the state agency responsible for protecting Michigan’s water, air, natural resources and public health – although whether they can live up to that responsibility without adequate resources remains to be seen. This is another blow to an agency that already suffers from a lack of... Read more →

EPA proposes rule to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from large sources under the Clean Air Act

The EPA has just announced a proposed rule to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the New Source Review program of the federal Clean Air Act. This regulatory action is hardly a surprise, as it’s been coming ever since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Massachusetts v. EPA decision in 2007, which held that greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act. Still, it’s a welcomed development from the Obama administration and EPA, and comes with a... Read more →